Stares
by 1002alle
Summary: What would have happened if Zach hit on Aria? What would Ella do? What would Ezra do? Please R & R!
1. Chapter 1

**N/A: Thank you for reading. I hope you like, and check out my other fanfiction I'm working on, An Ezria Fanfiction. Thanks! Please Rate and Review!**

Aria's POV

Do you know that feeling, when the entire world comes crashing down around you? I've felt that. I've felt that so many times, its not even different from regular life anymore. It is regular life. It's that feeling that the entire world is on my shoulders, not the actual fate of the world, not even that feeling, but the weight of it, trying to break me. It almost did. Almost.

5 months ago

"Hey Zach!" I said, as I saw my future stepfather behind the counter as I ordered my coffee. He smiled in my direction, and went back to the phone call he was invested in. I took my coffee over to the nook I always sat in. Spencer and Emily were already there, but we were still waiting on Hanna, who said she was going to be late. I sat down, sipping on the coffee, which for the first time in my life, I decided to take black.

"I guess Fitzy is making you more adventurous," Spencer joked. Emily laughed, and nudged Spence in the side. I was laughing to, and the bitterness of the coffee started to settle on my tongue, it was actually okay. The door of The Brew opened, and Hanna walked in in sweatpants, she looked disheveled, and shooting everybody in the café a glance before walking over to us. She sat down next to Spencer and put her head on her shoulder.

"I'll grab you a coffee," Emily offered, walking over to the register, and ordering Hanna's coffee, as sweet as could be. We were always telling her to cut down on the sugar, but Han wouldn't hear any of it.

"Han?" I asked, "Are you okay?" She seemed to be in a trance. She turned to face me, and shot me a look, like she didn't want to talk about whatever was bothering her. "I'm reading a really cool new book," Spencer said, "It's about the plague." Hanna, happy to be off the topic of her, added on, "That can't be a very good cover." Spence took it out of her bag, and handed it to Hanna. "Tasteless," Hanna said, before laughing and handing the book back to Spencer. Emily came back with the coffee, and began to talk about the swimming team. I was a _huge_ sharks fan.

"So Em, whens the next meet?" I asked as she, still sleepy, gulped down the last of her coffee.

"Its on Saturday," she said.

"Oh! I can't make it, I have a date with Ezra-"

"-Say no more, you can make the next one," she said.

"Speaking of Ezra," I said, looking at the skull shaped watch on my wrist, "I have to meet him before school." With that I said goodbye to the girls, and walked out of The Brew, unaware that Zach's eyes were following me with every step I took...

 **N/A: I'm really excited about this one, so I hope you guys R & R. I've been dying to see what would happen if Zach hit on Aria. How would Ella react? What about Ezra? I've always hated Zach and saw this thing with Hanna coming so long ago! Hope you like!**


	2. Chapter 2

**N/A: This is my 2nd Chapter, and special thanks to SouthrnBelle.**

"Hey Ezra," I called as I walked into his apartment. I still had my coffee in my hand, and had picked one up for him along the way. His coffee machine had been broken for days and his lack of coffee was making him a little cranky. I heard the shower running, so I walked over to his fridge to find a can of soda, a couple bottles of beer, and some left over lo mein we had 4 days ago. Nothing in his pantries either. I sighed and rolled my eyes, this was just like Ezra. I chuckled, and heard the door of the bathroom open. Ezra was wrapped in a towel, his perfect dark curls heavy with water.

I, as Ezra got dressed, began to question him about why he didn't have any food in his apartment. I handed him his coffee when he was finally in all his clothes, and when I handed it to him, he gave me a quick kiss, before slurping down that coffee like it was the first thing he had to drink in months. I studied him, his smiling blue eyes, dark hair, and perfect body. I couldn't see his intellectual brain, but I knew it was there. It was always there.

"Want a drive to school?" he asked me, pushing a strand of my hair behind my ear, nuzzling closer and closer. For a moment, our lips touched. Then he pulled away.

"I would love a drive to school," I said smiling.

"Hey Spencer," I called out as I saw her outside the school. She was talking to Toby, who when he saw me also waved, and then went into the school, chasing after somebody. I walked up to Spencer, making sure I didn't trip over my new studded pumps. We talked for about a minute before we were stopped by Hanna, the stench of alcohol rising off her.

"Han!" Spence said, criticizing her for the obvious hangover she was in.

"Not so loud," Hanna retorted, putting her hands over her ears.

"That is so wreckless, you can't afford to not be in control right now! You don't think maybe a teacher will _smell you_?" Spence said quieter than before, but more harshly. We could both see that Hanna was obviously in distress, but she wouldn't tell us about what. She had been like this for weeks, distant, and _always, always_ drunk out of her mind. I think she had been staying with Caleb. If her mother ever smelled that vodka on her, she would be grounded till she was 40.

The school bell rang, and Spencer, reluctantly started to walk to class, she wasn't done chewing out Hanna yet. I had math first period, and Hanna was following behind me. She flinched every time a locker closed. She was growling like a dog. I thought it was actually pretty funny, but I don't think Hanna would have appreciated that. I heard her phone go off.

"A?" I asked her.

"No, Aria, it's my _mother_!" Hanna said aggravated.

"Geez, sorry," I said under my breath. I walked into the math room, to where some sub was filling in.

After school we all went to the brew, except for Hanna, who, no surprise there, was with Caleb. Spencer, Emily, and I all went over to our usual spot, and I went to order our stuff. Zach stood behind the counter.

"Hey Aria, what can I get you?" he asked me.

"3 medium coffees, a blueberry muffin, and," I paused. He was staring at me. Weirdly. I tried to ignore it, and even said the rest of my order, but kept getting distracted.

"Coming right up," Zach said.

I walked back over to our table, and handed the girls their stuff. Obviously I got it wrong because Spence and Em had to switch coffees.

"Did anybody else find it weird how Zach was looking at me?" I asked them.

"No," they both said at the same time, preoccupied with getting the right amount of sugar in their coffee.

"Oh, ok..."

 **N/A: Please R & R!**


	3. Chapter 3

**N/A: I do not own any of these characters. Obviously...anyway please R &R. I'm really excited about where I'm going to take this...**

I woke up to the crisp light of morning. There was nothing to do until 8:00, and it was only 6:30. I tried to fall back asleep, but I couldn't. I just kept thinking about Ezra, somehow, he always morphed into Zach. I couldn't for the life of me shake the strange feeling that something was wrong. Something was off. I got up, and grabbed my journal off the shelf, and a black inked flower pen. I began to write in my messy cursive that I felt nobody could read except for me. I vented about everything I was feeling and thinking. I added a little about Ezra, and how he was, nothing much had changed...but I didn't know if I could write about Zach. What if my mom read that?

I got up, and looked down at my clock, 6:45. _Ok,_ _Thats IT!_ I thought harshly to myself, I didn't want to be like this, I wasn't a prisoner of my own mind!

* * *

"Aria," my mom said on my way out of the door.

"Yeah mom?"

"Can you grab some red pepper after school, we're having Zach over for dinner," she asked. I immediately tensed up. I don't know why. I liked Zach, he was ok, and he made my mom happy.

"Sure," I said to her, giving her a peck on the cheek. She smiled at me, and ruffled my dark hair. I pushed off all negative connotations that I held against Zach, and focused on getting to school on time. Hanna was walking to school, no doubt because she was in no condition to drive. "Han!" I yelled out of my window, "Want a drive?" I asked her, she rushed over to me. She wasn't wearing her normal pink, she was dressed in what looked like pajamas, and her makeup was smudged.

"Morning," Hanna said to me, putting her head on my shoulder, and blinking so she wouldn't fall asleep.

"Morning," I said, "Hey, you wouldn't happen to know if the corner store sells red pepper, would you?"

"Why do you need red pepper?" she asked me groggily, not really caring at all.

"My mom's cooking dinner for Zach tonight," I told her. At Zach's name, she flinched. Unless her head hadn't been on my shoulder, I wouldn't have noticed. "Han?" I asked concerned, "What's wrong, whats with Zach?"

"Can you pull over?" she asked me. I shook my head, prodding her for information, "God dammit Aria, pull the car over!" I finally pulled over, and Hanna got out, and started to walk in the opposite direction of school. I rolled my eyes, wondering what I had done. I began to think about my mom again, and how Zach made her feel. I didn't want to jeopardize them for nothing. I had to keep my suspicions to myself before I told her. If I was wrong, I would never forgive myself.

* * *

When I walked into the school, I found myself in the middle of a huge fight. Two boys had gotten into it, and somehow I ended up with a black eye. Ten minutes later, all three of us were in the principal's office, and he didn't believe that I had nothing to do with this. I wasn't exactly the goodie two shoes. I had gotten arrested, more than once. Into the office came a police officer. Was this little fight such a big deal?

"Excuse me, do you have time to talk in reference to one of your students?" the officer asked the principal. He nodded, and waved us out of the room.

"That was close," the boy with light brown hair said.

"I know right," said the other boy, who I think was names Thom, or something. After they left, I tried to listen in on the conversation, but all I could get was someone's name. It was Hanna Marin. "Oh no!" I said under my breath, I needed to find Hanna, what had happened?

 **N/A: Ok, so I know this is short, but I have really good ideas for the next chapter. Tell me what you think!**


	4. Chapter 4

"Hey Aria, they're closing The Brew," Emily said. I nod and tell her I'm going to go to the bathroom. She waves goodbye to me, and I make my way to the ladies room. As I'm washing my hands under the warm water, all I'm thinking about is the paper I have to write on WWII and the Axis powers. I dry my hands, and open the door. As soon as I do, I jump back immediately. Zach is standing there smiling at me. The Brew was dark except for one light.

"What the hell Zach?!" I yell, before chuckling awkwardly, and trying to get past him so that I can leave and go home. As I push past him, he grabs my upper arm. I spin around, and look at him. "What are you doing?" I ask him irritated. He pushes a lock of my hair behind my ear.

"You're so pretty," he says to me, moving his hand down to my thigh. I pull back, and I guess Zach broke out of whatever he was in. "Oh my GOD!" he said, "Aria, DO _NOT_ TELL YOUR MOTHER!" I turned and ran, him yelling after me, telling me not to tell my mother again. Was there any way I could have misunderstood that? There had to be a way. I pushed on the pedal as hard as I could, and rushed to the only place I ever really could escape from life. I knocked on the door of Ezra's apartment, my eyes puffy. I tried to keep my voice as monotone as I could.

"Aria? Whats wrong?" he asked, obviously not fooled. Ezra was so perfect, so great to me, I couldn't tell him. I just wanted his arms around me. I wanted everything to be like it was before. I just stood there in front of Ezra, and I knew I couldn't tell him. I felt hopeless. I felt like there was no way to talk to him, so I turned and left, but before I could, he pulled me back by the arm. Suddenly I began to hyperventilate and tried to push him away. Why was I pushing EZRA away? He looked at me with complete shock as we both sunk to the floor and I cried into his chest. Within minutes I was trying to dismiss what had just happened. I must have thought of something wrong. He didn't mean that? Right? "Aria...please...talk to me."

I looked up into his eyes and I wondered if I'd ever be able to tell him. We were always honest with each other. He told me about Jackie, about every skeleton in his closet, and I told him mine. But this was over now, and I pulled away from him. I pushed him further away, and I left the apartment. Left 3B, but I didn't want to go home. I didn't want to face my parents. I ran from the corner or something. I didn't really know what I was doing. Somehow I made my way to Hanna's house.

Hanna was watching some TV show that featured her favorite actress as I tapped on the window of her bedroom. I had perfected the art of climbing up the tree outside her room, handholds, footholds, unstable branches and branches that I could jump to. I had kicked off my high heels, and put them where I always did. Hanna freaked out when I tapped on her window. She opened it, and I walked the big branch and climbed through into her room.

"I need to talk." I said.

 **N/A: I'm sooooo sorry. I've been gone for a long time. I kind of feel like no one is reading. So if you are...please comment!**

 **-1002alle**


	5. Author's Note

p style="text-align: left;"strongAuthor's Note/strong/p  
p style="text-align: left;"strongI'm sorry that this isn't a chapter but I have been completely stumped. If any of you have an idea, I would love to hear it! Sorry again. I'll try to update soon. /strong/p  
p style="text-align: left;"strong-1002alle/strong/p 


	6. Chapter 6

**N/A: So, I know I haven't updated in a while, just started High School, and totally drowned in work. This chapter has some profanityer, so if that's something that you don't want to read, you can skip over that part. Sorry again!**

"Aria?" Hanna asked surprised. She was obviously surprised that I had just come through her window.

"Hanna, I need to talk to someone. Please?" I asked.

"Sure," Hanna responded, with just one word. What was going on with her? She never used one word when 50, or 50,000 would do.

"Um..." I stuttered, "something happened with Zach today, and I might be making a big deal of it, but I don't think so," I said really quickly. I saw Hanna tense up.

"I'm sure it's nothing," she said, twirling her hair absentmindedly around her finger. She was _never_ this quiet.

"I don't think so Hanna..." I said, "he like, groped me, it was gross," I said, subconsciously. Hanna turned to me with a look of disgust on her face.

"You think thats fucking bad?!" Hanna snapped at me. I was taken aback. What? What was she talking about. I saw her deep blue eyes tear up and I couldn't even think about what this meant. Had something bad happened to _her_?

"Wait, Hanna?" I asked meekly, "did something bad happen to you?" Hanna just turned away from me. She refused to talk to me. Her face was like steel, completely unmoving. Suddenly I got the much dreaded text.

 **Who knew your soon to be stepdad was such a creep?**

 **Poor Ella,**

 **What are you going to tell her?**

 **That Zach raped your best friend?**

 **Good luck bitch,**

 **xoxo**

 **-A**

I gasped when I read that. "Hanna? Is that true?" I asked, horrified, "did he r-rape you?" That was the moment when the flood gates broke down, and Hanna just began to cry. I went over to her, and wrapped my arms around her shoulders. "Shh. Hanna, you're okay. I promise. He won't get away with it," I said, keeping a straight face. I needed to keep a straight face for Hanna. Her short blonde hair seemed like it hadn't been washed in weeks. "I'm going to run you a bath," I said, Hanna didn't respond, just lay down on her bed, her back to me. It all made sense. Her outbursts, her shyness, her seeming sadness. I felt so bad. Why didn't she tell me?

I went into her bathroom, wondering if her mother knew. My small hand wrapped around the chrome knob of the bathtub, and I adjusted the temperature, until it was perfect. I went back into Hanna's bedroom, she hadn't moved.

"Does your mom know?" I asked her, sitting next to her. She shook her head. "You should tell her," I said.

"What's the point?" Hanna asked, "I don't have any evidence..." she put her arm over her head. We sat like that for 20 minutes, in silence until the water had filled up the tub. I guided her over to the tub. I helped her out of her clothes. I reached into the cabinet for a bath bomb. I took out the pink rose one I knew was her favorite. I saw a couple bruises still on her.

"When did it happen?" I asked, seriously.

"A couple weeks ago, I don't want to talk about it please. Not tonight," she pleaded.

* * *

Sorry for the long wait! I really wanted to update, but I'm still having _major_ writers block. Hope you enjoy. Any thoughts for this? Sorry again!

-1002alle


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